Dumbing-down of Robert Aldrich's 1974 prison-cum-football film, the Sadistic Guards versus the Avenging Convicts, not one of Aldrich's smarter ideas to begin with. (It's now the ESPN era, and the game is broadcast on national television.) Burt Reynolds, the star of the original, is given a token role and his old jersey number (22) as an incarcerated former coach and, for one play, a geriatric tailback. (Ed Lauter, the chief sadistic guard of the original, is given a mere walk-on.) Runty Adam Sandler, while he passes muster in a game of one-on-one basketball, is not up to the action on the gridiron, much less to the moments of heavier drama: the receiving end of the sadism, the grieving over a fallen comrade, the inspirational speeches. With Chris Rock, William Fichtner, James Cromwell, Cloris Leachman; directed by Peter Segal. (2005) — Duncan Shepherd
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